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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

So I guess I've been bad about updating the blog about THE PILOT (kinda half the point of the blog)! It's easy to forget to update what he is doing because he hasn't been here in like 5 weeks and right now it's all about me and Clyde (yeah I know, my blog posts about Clyde are out of control-sorry!).
But anyway, Greg is doing great at his training. He's the oldest guy in his class and I guess he's borderline anti-social because he spends a great deal of time hanging out in the hotel room studying. Some of his classmates are pretty young and do not have any other commercial airline experience and maybe don't completely know what they are in for the way he does since he's been through this oh about fifty thousand times now (ok maybe not that many, but it sure seems like a lot!). Greg feels like he is kind of being held to a higher standard because pretty much all the instructors know he's got the most experience, so it's sort of added pressure (as if he doesn't already put a ton of pressure on himself!). Anyway, the man spends A LOT of time studying. The rest of the class, well, maybe not so much. They like hitting Beal Street many nights of the week and sometimes don't come home til the wee hours of the morning. Greg tries to avoid going out, but gets roped into it about once a week or so.
Greg took his written final yesterday and scored 100%. I think the lowest score he's gotten on anything might have been like a 95%. He's got his oral exam later this week, and then we THINK he is coming home on Friday night! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will be the end of ground school, and then next up is simulator training, which will probably be a couple weeks away again. We think he's going to have a gap of hopefully a week or more in between ground school and simulator training, but we're not sure yet. He should know more soon. It's been a long 5 weeks or so without him. I'm so glad we started Skyping most nights. That really helped even though it's not the same as being with each other. This actually may have been the longest we've been apart. He's been to training in Miami and Houston for two + months with two other airlines, but with those I managed to sneak in a visit about midway, so we probably didn't go more than about 3 weeks or so without seeing each other those times. Greg tells me Memphis is not the greatest city and is kind of unsafe, but regardless, I had hoped to get out there for a visit and see him and check it out. It just didn't work out this time due to standby flights looking crappy, positive space seats outrageously expensive, driving not being very practical, and Greg feeling like he needed to really buckle down and study hard since he's been out of an airplane for a year and a half. At the halfway mark I sent Greg some goodies with a little note from Heidi's Heavenly Cookies. I was originally planning on sending a homemade "care package" with lots of different kinds of edible goodies in there, but he's actually been shopping a bunch while out there and had told me right before that he was worried he might not be able to eat all the stuff he'd bought in the time he had left. I figured cookies would go quick though (I know my husband, and cookies don't stand a chance!), and he could share if he needed help polishing them off. I don't think he needed much help though!
I'm so proud of him for doing so well in training and making it through a long time away from home. I feel bad that he's missed all this time with Clyde. He always says he can tell he's getting bigger when he sees him on Skype. I think Clyde has gained like 3 lbs since Greg left, and is actually getting close to being full grown now. It's sad that Greg missed a lot of "puppy time". I think Greg would have had fun at the Dogswalk for Cancer, would have liked seeing Clyde meet my parents and experience the beach for the first time, and missed me teaching Clyde to sit. :( I guess we'll be in for the same sort of missed milestones when we have kids one day. Sad. I'm sure the boys will make up for lost time when he gets back though! I see some slobbery doggies kisses and a tail wagging uncontrollably in Greg's immediate future :)